Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Game 3: Yankees at Astros

Is this a must-win game in April? No, not really … but, on the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt to get into the ‘W’ column. You never want to be swept, especially by an Astros team that lost 111 games last season. Ivan Nova and Brett Oberholtzer are your pitching matchup tonight from Minute Maid Park, getting started at 8:10 p.m. ET.

Here are the quick hits you need to know:

AT A GLANCE: The Yankees will play their third game of the season tonight at Houston…is the third game of a six-game road trip that also includes three games at Toronto (4/4-6)…following this road trip, return home for a 10-day, nine-game homestand vs. Baltimore (4/7-9), vs. Boston (4/10-13) and vs. Chicago-NL (4/15-16)…will play 18 of their first 31 games at home.

They have started 0-2 for the third consecutive season…have dropped their first three games just twice in the previous 25 seasons from 1989-2013 (0-3 in 1998 and 2012).

YESTERDAY’S NEWS: The Yankees lost on Wednesday at Houston, 3-1…Yankees pitchers allowed just four combined hits (two of which were solo HRs) and held Astros hitters to 0-for-5 with RISP…Yankees batters had one extra-base hit (Beltran double) and scored their only run on a double-play groundout in the seventh…RHP Hiroki Kuroda started and took the loss, allowing 2ER in 6.0IP (3H, 1BB, 5K, 1HR)…2B Brian Roberts (3-for-4) had three singles…C Brian McCann (2-for-4) singled twice…LHP Matt Thornton (0.1IP, 1BB) made his first appearance as a Yankee.

CURTAIN CALL: SS Derek Jeter leads all active MLB players and is the Yankees franchise leader with 3,317 career hits… needs just 2H to tie Paul Molitor (3,319) for eighth place on MLB’s all-time hits list and fourth place on the all-time AL hits list.

Here are the lineups, brought to you by the outstanding brisket and ribs served at Gatlin’s BBQ. It’s a scheduled day off for Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann; Joe Girardi didn’t want to play Ellsbury in three straight games because of his interrupted spring, and McCann will be behind the plate tomorrow night to catch Masahiro Tanaka.

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12 Comments

Hey, seek, welcome back. A new season. Hopefully a better result than 2013. Yankees have paid out a boatload of money to put this team together so it better produce. Through spring training it was the young guys, the minor leaguers who were getting hits and scoring runs, not the Teixieras or Ellsbury or Soriano. It was guys like Solarte and Anna and Almonte and even Suzuki. Good move to change up the lineup. They’ve got to keep Solarte in somewhere. he can play a number of positions. Go with the hot hand until a few of the other guys catch up, hopefully. Need a win here tonight. I don’t think we’ve even hit a home run in the first 3 games yet. Bronx Bombers? Hopefully this game will be a winner and kick start this team.

Well let’s hope the sticks breakout tonight. Kuroda pitched well enough to win most games. Far as CC I’ve been saying the Yankees should have unloaded him two years ago. He’s a power pitcher and that fastball is GONE. So either adjust (like many do) or it’s time to move on. Not sure anyone has a “feel” about this team.

Sabathia still has some gas in the tank BUT the days of throwing hard stuff between 93-96 MPH are long gone. What bothers me is I don’t see him recognizing what’s going on or making any adjustments in order to post Ws.

This would appear to be Solarte’s first start. It would be nice if they encouraged this guy a little as he barely made the team .After a really nice spring, at the end there he was on the squad. The endless babble praising Jeter, Texeira and some other over paid dream stars ought to extend to newcomers like Solarte to make them feel good and important. As a fan for sixty five years I know there is no pressure on Jeter and Tex. Nothing is expected from these wounded warriors and listening to Texeira when he speaks about his situation, read between the lines and expect litte. Same for Jeter.
Tex has time as he usually is a slow starter followed by a little more as the season progresses, until the next excuse…….another injury.Encourage these guys to play well.Put a muzzle on Cashan and Girardi.

I just put up that comment before I read the lineup for tonight and sure enough there is Solarte. Great minds think alike! Way to go Joe. Hopefully Solarte can be the spark plug to get this team going.

early in the season but don’t really like what I see so far offensively and defensively. CC had early bad outing but Hideki pitched well except to Fowler. But you can’t win many games scoring only 1 or 2 runs. Soriano looks like he’s trying to swing for the fence on every pitch no matter how far out of the strike zone it is. And Tex doesn’t look at all comfortable at the plate. This team hasn’t developed any chemistry or mo-jo yet. Hopefully soon or it will mean catch up for the first 20 games. The hot hitter in spring training was solarte and he’s on the roster but not playing. Maybe he needs to be inserted in the lineup before he cools off. It was the young prospects in spring training that did the hitting and scored the runs not the old veterans.

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